"Scientific imperialism" or "potlatch"

In a 2007 article Elinor Ostrom writes:

Looking at the positive side of interdisciplinary relationships, Herbert Simon (1999) called the exchange between economics and political science a ‘potlatch’ where each discipline has brought ‘gifts’ to the other. After many years of suspicions regarding the ‘gifts’ brought by the other discipline, Simon concludes that the extensive methodological and empirical development of the last fifty years has prepared all of the social sciences for a better interaction in the future. ‘Gift-giving between economics and the other social sciences can become a genuine exchange, going in both directions’ (ibid.: 117).

[This also holds, or at least it should, for economics and anthropology]. 

Reference:

Simon, H. A. (1999), ‘The Potlatch between Economics and Political Science’, in J. Alt, M. Levi, and E. Ostrom (eds), Competition and Cooperation: Conversations with Nobelists about Economics and Political Science, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 112–119.